EW's 'Must List' (featuring the cast of RENT and Tony winner Sara Ramirez)

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 6/17/05 at 3:29pm

Today, I got Entertainment Weekly's yearly MUST LIST issue and was so happy to see many stage actors on it. Here are the ones I could find:

The Cast of RENT: (#30-37)
-Names/Ages: Jesse L. Martin, 36; Idina Menzel, 31; Wilson Jermaine Heredia, 33; Taye Diggs, 33; Rosario Dawson, 26; Tracie Thoms, 30; Anthony Rapp, 33; Adam Pascal, 34
-Mustworthiness: On paper, this probably sounds like one of the most ill-conceived projects of the year. Take a much beloved Pulitzer- and Tony-winning musical; reunite the original cast members, who are now a decade too old to play the toles they made famous (Diggs spent last year playing a dad for christsakes); and pair them with Christopher Columbus, a director best known for working with Macaulay Culkin and Harry Potter. Menzel and Martin, explain yourselves!
-Song in the Tooth: "It's a hard show to sing and I thought, God nine years later; who knows what'll come out?" says Martin (Tom). "But it's even better."
-'Rent' uncontrol: "I just made sure I kept whatever spontaneity I had about it then", says Menzel (Maureen). "And yet, having more experience under my belt, I've discovered more levels."
-New Girl on the Block: Rosario Dawson took over the role of Mimi from Daphne Rubin-Vega. "She has the right spirit for the show. She's the type of person everyone likes the minute they meet her", notes Menzel.
-New Guy on the Block: Columbus, really? "As you can probably guess, we were all over (Chris) about his cinematic vision", says Martin, who assures us the film like the play, will be "dark and gritty". Okay, good job, guys. We're intrigued.
-Next: RENT is in theaters on November 11th.

The Cast of THE PRODUCERS (#40-42)
-Names/Ages: Matthew Broderick (Leo Bloom) 43; Nathan Lane (Max Bialystock), 49; and Uma Thurman (Ulla), 35
-Mustworthiness: In 1968, it was a film (starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder) about the making of a musical flop; in 2001, it became a smash-hit Broadway musical (starring Lane and Broderick); and now its...a musical film! With some va-voom from newcomer Thurman (plus Will Ferrell as a buffoonish Nazi playwright), Mel Brook's sublimely silly comedy finally comes full-circle.
-From Stage (Back) to Screen: "It was odd at the beginning because youre so used to the audience", Lane says. "But it's still in your head somewhere. Joan of Arc heard voices-we hear the distant laughter of people in a Broadway theater".
-Tough Acts to Follow: "I'm not as good as Gene Wilder and I'm not as good as myself", Broderick deadpans. "It's very confusing"
-Swede Surrender: "Ulla is just a delicious character-pure joy and sex and sweetness", says Thurman, who stepped into the seductive secretary role after Nicole Kidman dropped out. "I finally get to be a song and dance girl which is all I ever wanted to be"
-The End of the Road: "After the movie, I think that's it for a while", says Lane. "Unless we do THE PRODUCERS: THE TV SERIES: They produce a new flop ever week!"
-Next: THE PRODUCERS hits theaters on December 23rd; Broderick and Lane team up again in October for a Broadway revival of THE ODD COUPLE.

Cherry Jones (#65)
-Age: 48
-Mustworthiness: Jones just took home Tony number 2 for playing the stern Sister Aloysius in Broadway's smash hit spiritual drama, DOUBT.
- Back in the Habit: The Southern Methodist appeared as a nun on 2004's short lived CBS series 'Clubhouse'. "I was offered a third nun and I said, 'Absolutley not!'"
-On Her Must List: Felicity Huffman in 'Transamerica'. "She really is something else" (We think so too. See #5)
-Next: DOUBT, indefinitely.

Bill Irwin (#73)
-Age: 55
-Mustworthiness: With a career like Irwin's...oh, wait; there is no career like Irwin's. The actor-writer-clown was Mr. Noodle on Sesame Street. He's written & performed a Tony-winning bluegrass-mime hybrid Fool Moon. And now he's won raves and a Best Actor Tony award for the Broadway revival of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", where he faces off with Kathleen Turner in a three act, three hour marital duel that would put Zeus and Hera to shame.
-The Hard Smell: "One day, Kathleen told me, 'It’s hard to take about this but...your breath doesn’t smell good.' It was shocking, the thought of being offensive. But I’m sure it did stink. I was holding everything in."
-How to Negotiate That Dense Albee Dialogue: "You can use any of the tired old metaphors-tightrope walking, doing a dance. But it remains true: You can't have your mind behind you".
-Next: More '...Woolf'.

Liev Schreiber (#80)
-Age: 37
-Mustworthiness: Among the nation's finest Shakespearean thesps, Schreiber (last seen on screen in The Manchurian Candidate) now juggles nights performing in David Mamet's 'Glengarry Glen Ross'-he’s a Tony winner for playing Chicago sales shark Ricky Roma-and days editing his film adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's 'Everything is Illuminated'.
-The Agony and Ecstasy of Multitasking: "We started talking about ('Glengarry') when I was in Prague (shooting 'Everything'). I assumed I'd be done with the film much sooner. i wasn't envisioning these full days in the cutting room. For a while, I thought it was a stupid decision to take the play, In retrospect, I’m glad I did"
-For The Tony or the Cussing?: "The play is full of so much profanity it's actually a great vent for the frustrations of editing".
-Next: Sleep. "Man, am I going to sleep. It'll be the first recorded case of human hibernation."

Sara Ramirez (#117)
-Age: 29
-Mustworthiness: After bidding her time in clunker like Paul Simon's CAPEMAN, Sara (pronounced SA-da) Ramirez found the Holy Grail of Broadway musicals: MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT. As the Lady of the Lake, she hams it up with heavyweights Tim Curry, David Hyde Pierce, and Hank Azaria...then steals the show from every spotlight-hogging one of them.
-Playing with the Boys: She's the only leading lady, but, insists the newly minted Tony-winner, "I'm not just there to walk around with a nice rack. There are challenging aspects to the part". Like keeping a straight face while farting Frenchman run amok, we imagine.
-Spam it Up!: "I actually dig it. I'm a corned beef hash girl, so that has a similar taste"
-Next: SPAMALOT through December.


Let me know if I need to credit the magazine any more so I won’t be ambushed for plagiarizing anything . I've done it before without crediting it but nonetheless...

Entertainment Weekly (#826-827) June 24/July 1, 2005 issue.

Updated On: 6/17/05 at 03:29 PM

[Plum]

Posted: 6/17/05 at 4:09pm

Aaaah, Everything is Illuminated!

This has been my fangirl moment for the day.